Students are a worried lot. Schools are shut from the last four months almost and the prospect of them opening anytime soon looks acutely dim. There are the lucky ones who live a sheltered, well-mentored life and have well-educated parents to guide them. There are those whose parents have walked the talk and have already left footsteps for their children to follow. For those sorts, even with schools closed, the road is wide open and well lit.
However, for the majority a lot of things appear clouded. They are not able to map what they have to do with their careers and unless an eternal, constant counselling is present they are most likely to lose interest very soon. A teacher at school is foremost a counsellor. We need more and more of counsellors at this point of time.
Once the schools reopen we would be dealing with a lot that has gotten habitual of staying home and is not accustomed to paying focussed attention for more than fifteen minutes. We cannot just go and flung one concept after another in the classroom. The first week of the reopening of schools has to be totally counselling-centric. Make students realise the gravity of the situation they are faced up with and tell them that they are in a way lucky that during such an early age they had their brushes with the hardest of times. At the same time tell them that in the coming weeks we may have to increase the frequency of the classes and the longevity of each class.
We have enough resources at our disposal in government and private schools. The need of the hour is to do a bit of a training of the trainer concept counselling so that once the schools start the teachers are able to counsel the students in a similar way. We wish all the best to the students.
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